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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22734946">Twenty Seconds of Courage</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/directorsharpie/pseuds/directorsharpie'>directorsharpie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, Ava is kind of insecure, F/F, Mutual Pining, pure fluff, valentines day fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 17:48:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,418</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22734946</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/directorsharpie/pseuds/directorsharpie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She was the most popular girl in school, she was extremely smart, kind and funny; not to mention very hot, and everyone loved her. Including Ava Sharpe, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the girl and she talked about her all the time. But, she had never actually worked up the courage to speak to her. </p><p>“I can’t, she probably doesn’t even know I exist,” Ava said as she tore her eyes away from Sara</p><p> </p><p>Or </p><p>Ava has a huge crush on Sara, but she never acted on it until Nora and Felicity give her some advice.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>226</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Twenty Seconds of Courage</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Ava would you please do us all a favor and just ask her out already,” Nora said when she noticed her best friend staring at Sara Lance. </p><p>She was the most popular girl in school, she was extremely smart, kind and funny; not to mention very hot, and everyone loved her. Including Ava Sharpe, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the girl and she talked about her all the time. But, she had never actually worked up the courage to speak to her. </p><p>“I can’t, she probably doesn’t even know I exist,” Ava said as she tore her eyes away from Sara and carried on eating her lunch. </p><p>Nora just rolled her eyes at Ava, because how could she not know she exists. She is one of the smartest people in school, everyone knew Ava. </p><p>Especially Sara. </p><p>Ava was too focused on her school work, softball and her other extracurricular activities. She was always too focused to even notice the way that Sara looks at her with a soft smile when she knows Ava isn’t looking. </p><p>But, Nora notices. She notices the way Sara quickly turns away when she thinks Ava might catch her looking, she notices the way that Sara freezes a little when Ava is near her. But, Nora also knows that Sara has just as big of a crush on Ava than Ava does on Sara. That’s the perks of dating Ray Palmer, he gets so excited to share secrets with her because he has to tell at least one person outside of his friendship group and he trusts that she won’t tell anyone. </p><p>So far she had kept the secret, no matter how hard it was to see her best friend pining over a girl who definitely liked her back but she couldn’t betray Ray's trust by telling her. So she kept it to herself and tried her best to encourage Ava to just talk to Sara. </p><p>“Trust me she knows you exist, just talk to her what’s the worst thing that could happen? Felicity back me up here,” Nora said and Felicity just nodded her head enthusiastically. </p><p>“You should definitely talk to her like Nora said what’s the worst that could happen? If you talk to her you might be surprised with the outcome,” Felicity tried to encourage Ava to go talk to her but she was having none of it. She quickly ate her lunch and packed all of her things away. </p><p>“I just remembered I have to go and speak to Mr Hunter about the assignment,” Ava said and she left the table before her friends could say anything else. She was just about to walk out into the hallway until she smashed into somebody, causing the books in her arms to fall to the floor with a loud thud. </p><p>“Oh my god I’m so sorry, I should’ve been paying attention to where I was walking,” the person said as they quickly picked up Ava’s books and handed them to her. Ava glanced at the person and froze when she realized it was Sara. “Are you okay? You aren’t hurt are you?” Sara questioned when Ava didn't respond to her. </p><p>Ava just nodded her head and hurried off and she practically ran down the hallway to get away from that situation. She made her way to the other end of the school and made a beeline for the bathroom. Thankfully it was empty, she went to the stall furthest away from the door and locked herself in. </p><p>Why didn’t you speak to her Ava? She was right there! Oh my god, she probably thinks I’m a weirdo for running away like that. </p><p>Ava’s thoughts spiralled and she felt herself struggling to breathe. She closed her eyes, counted to 50 and took slow deep breaths. </p><p>She managed to calm herself down until the bell rang and she realized that Sara was in her next class. She quickly collected her things before rushing to class. </p><p>The next day, Ava avoided even looking in Sara’s direction. </p><p>“What is going on with you? You haven’t looked up from your food the entire lunch break,” Felicity said and Ava’s head snapped up to look at her friend. She looked at her with a blank expression, until she noticed Sara looking in her direction. </p><p>She felt her cheeks growing warm and she felt Nora and Felicity’s gaze on her when she looked back down at her food. </p><p>“Is this because of what happened at lunch yesterday?” Nora questioned and Ava’s cheeks grew even redder because she forgot that the whole cafeteria had seen the exchange, and they had all watched her run away from Sara. Instead of denying it she just let out a groan. </p><p>“I made a fool out of myself, I couldn’t even speak to her to thank her for picking up my books so what makes you guys think that I can tell her how I feel about her?” Ava said and she could feel herself getting frustrated at the fact that she would probably never be able to work up the confidence to tell Sara. </p><p>“Wha- we never- she just caught you by surprise that’s all, you never know it might be different if you know you’re going to speak to her,” Felicity stumbled over her words, trying to find the best thing to say to help Ava feel better. </p><p>“You know Ray always says if you’re ever scared to do something all you need is twenty seconds of courage because once you’ve started doing the thing you’re scared of it’s not so bad because you’re already doing it,” Nora added, and Ava just frowned. </p><p>“But what happens if you lose the courage? Then it’s just going to lead to an embarrassing situation,” Ava argued. </p><p>“But you’re already doing the thing so it’s not as scary as you thought it would be.”</p><p>“She’s right you know, Ray told me about the twenty second thing and I managed to talk to Oliver. Look at us now, we’ve been together for almost three years, you never know what could end up happening to you and Sara,” Felicity said with a small smile.</p><p>Ava scoffed in response, she looked up at her friends and the two of them had confused looks on their faces. “That is never going to happen, even if I do speak to her what makes you think she’s going to return my feelings? She is the most popular girl in school, she could have anyone she wants why would she want me? I’m just, I’m just me,” Ava said softly. </p><p>“Exactly you’re you, anyone would be lucky to have you, Aves. You’re such an amazing person and you need to give yourself more credit,” Felicity said and it brought a soft smile onto Ava’s face. </p><p>“We don’t want to force you to talk to her but we just don’t want you to regret not trying, because you could end up being soulmates and spend the rest of your lives together.”</p><p>“Soulmates aren’t real,” Ava said rolling her eyes and Felicity let out a dramatic gasp. </p><p>“Of course they are, and you never know yours could be sitting right over there,” Felicity said pointing at Sara with her thumb. </p><p>Before the conversation could carry on further the bell rang and Ava had never been more excited to go to class. Okay, that’s a lie she loved going to class, but she was even more excited because it meant she could get away from the conversation. </p><p>They packed their things away before separating to go to their respective classes. </p><p>The rest of the day was uneventful. </p><p>But, Ava couldn’t stop thinking about what Nora said about the twenty seconds of courage, because maybe she had a point. The only thing stopping her from talking to Sara was the fact that she was scared. Maybe if she just felt confident, even just for twenty seconds, she might have a chance of having an actual conversation with her. </p><p>At the end of the day, she was putting a few books into her locker and exchanging them for her homework books. She was carefully putting them into her backpack when she noticed Sara standing a few lockers to her right. </p><p>She looked beautiful, Ava thought. The light was hitting the mirror on her locker door causing it to shine on her face and she looked like she was glowing. Ava was stuck in place for a moment just admiring her beauty. Until she thought back to what Nora said at lunch. </p><p>Twenty seconds. </p><p>That’s all she needed. </p><p>She shut her locker and threw her backpack over her shoulder before walking over to Sara. </p><p>Twenty seconds. That’s all you need, Ava thought to herself as she was walking over to Sara. </p><p>That didn’t stop her heart from pounding in her chest. It sounded so loud in her head she was sure the few other people in the hallway could hear it too. Her palms were starting to get clammy with nerves, and she could feel herself slightly losing control of her breathing. </p><p>She took a few deep breaths and repeated, ‘all you need is twenty seconds of courage,’ in her head until she was by Sara’s side. </p><p>“Hi,” she said when she finally reached her. Sara looked away from her locker and up at Ava with a small smile on her face. </p><p>“Hey Ava, how are you? You ran away pretty abruptly yesterday, you aren’t hurt are you?” Sara questioned, her voice was full of concern. Ava just shook her head. </p><p>Instead of answering Sara’s question she blurted out, “Valentine me please.”</p><p>Confusion flashed through Sara’s eyes at Ava’s words, and the second Ava realized what she had just said her face turned a deep shade of red. She looked down at the floor and wished that it would just swallow her whole so she could get away from the conversation. </p><p>For a second she considered running away from her, but she didn’t want to make a habit of that because what if Felicity is right and Sara is the person she is supposed to end up with. She would spend the rest of her life hating herself for it. So, she stayed exactly where she was and tried to explain herself properly this time. </p><p>“I’m sorry, what I meant to say was, Valentines is coming up and I have liked you for a while now and I was just wondering if you would like to go out with me?” Ava paused for a second before speaking again. “Obviously I understand if you have plans with someone else, you’re amazing, I’m sure a lot of people have asked you out, or if you just don’t want to I’d understand because i-”</p><p>Ava stopped rambling on when Sara let out a soft chuckle. Ava felt conflicted about the sound because on one hand it was the cutest thing she had ever heard and she would do anything to hear Sara laugh. But on the other hand, she realized that she was probably laughing at her for asking her out. Ava’s face dropped, of course, she should have known that Sara Lance wouldn’t have wanted to go out with her. She could have anyone she wanted, boy or girl, why on earth would she want Ava?</p><p>“Ava stop,” Sara chuckled softly again, “I would love to go out with you, when are you thinking?”</p><p>“This was a mistake, I’m sorry for bothering you- wait did you say yes?” Ava asked when her brain finally caught up with what Sara had just said, and there it was again that damn chuckle. </p><p>“Of course I did, I have liked you for so long but I wasn’t even sure if you’re into girls so I never acted on it because I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable,” Sara said and Ava felt like she was floating because Sara Lance has had a crush on her for a while. She couldn’t quite believe it. </p><p>“Oh, uh yeah I do, I just never told anyone because nobody other than Nora and Felicity really cares,” Ava shrugged and quickly changed the subject back to their date. “How does Friday at seven sound? For the date I mean.”</p><p>“That sounds perfect.”</p><p>“Great, I’ll pick you up at seven.”</p><p>“I’ll be counting on it miss Sharpe,” Sara said with a teasing smirk on her face, which only caused Ava to blush again. </p><p>“I have to go to softball practice, but I can text you later with more details about the date if you want?” Ava asked, she still felt very shy around Sara and even though she had agreed to go on a date with her and had confessed her feelings, she didn’t want to push it too far by asking for her number. </p><p>“That sounds good, here let me put my number in your phone,” Sara said and Ava nodded her head and quickly handed it over to Sara. She added her contact information before handing the phone back to Ava with a smirk on her face. </p><p>“Thank you,” Ava said quietly, she wanted to stay there and talk to Sara all night but she saw the time and realized she was late for practice and she had never been late for it in her entire life. “I’m late so I have to go but I’ll see you tomorrow?” </p><p>Sara nodded her head and the two of them parted ways. Ava practically sprinted through the now empty hallways and towards the locker rooms.</p><p>Sara closed her locker, she leaned her back against it and looked up at the ceiling with the biggest smile on her face. It reached from ear to ear, and she was pretty sure she hadn’t smiled that hard in a long time. </p><p>Ava had a matching smile on her face for the entirety of practice, luckily the helmet helped to hide it from her teammates. But, she didn’t have the protection of the helmet the next day to hide the same smile from her best friends. Which led to an entire day of teasing her about Sara. She acted annoyed with them about it, but in reality she was way too happy that Sara actually said yes for her to be really annoyed with them. </p><p>Ava thought back to the advice Nora had given her the previous day, and she felt as though she could do anything she set her mind to. </p><p>Because twenty seconds of courage is all you need.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed and let me know what you thought in the comments :)</p><p>Also, I might write a part 2 for this, where they're on their date</p></blockquote></div></div>
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